although columbus in 1492 opened the sea route to the newworld ，what he did in 1493 changed the world even more.hestarted what is called the“columbian exchange”。this broughtideas and things from the new world back to the old world andalso took things from the old world out to the new world.be-cause of columbus，the western and eastern hemispheres blended their cultures.
in the fall of 1493 columbus took seventeen ships carryingtwelve hundred men to the new world to establish spanish set-tlements for ferdinand and isabella.
he had brought plants and animals from europe——horses，cows，pigs，and sheep to provide food for his settlers.theseimports replaced native plants and animals，completely changingmany of the caribbean islands ，and eventually much of the northand south american continents.
sadly，the europeans also brought diseases unknown to thenew world.over the next years from fifty to ninety percent ofmost native-american communities in the americas died fromeurope's smallpox ，diphtheria ，typhus ，and malaria .evenchildhood diseases like measles and whooping cough becamemass killers.on the other hand，columbus's men took back withthem syphilis ，which killed hundreds of thousands of europeansin just the next five years.
尽管哥伦布在1492年打开了通往新大陆的航道，但他在1493的成就则更多地改变了世界。他开始了现在所称的“哥伦布文化交流”。这一活动把思想和事物从西半球带回到了东半球，也把东半球的东西带到了西半球。由于有了哥伦布，西半球和东半球将其文化融合起来了。
1493年秋天，哥伦布带领十七条船和一千二百人前往新大陆，为费尔南德和伊莎贝拉建立西班牙殖民地。
为了向他的殖民者们提供食物，他从欧洲带去植物和动物——马、牛、猪、和羊。这些引进的东西代替了本地的植物和动物，完全改变了加勒比海的许多岛屿，甚至极大地改变了北美和南美大陆。
令人伤心的是，欧洲人也带去了新大陆所不知的疾病。在随后的几年里，百分之五十到九十的美洲的土著人死于欧洲的天花、白喉、斑疹伤寒和疟疾，即使象麻疹和百日咳这样的小儿疾病也成了主要的杀手。另一方面，哥伦布的人也把梅毒带了回来，仅在随后的五年时间里即害死了成千上万的欧洲人。